© Maria Lysaker-USA TODAY Sports activities

After lower than 10 months on the helm, Sam Laity is not the pinnacle coach of the Houston Sprint. 

On Wednesday, the Englishman was formally fired after a poor stretch of type that subsequently put the Texas membership’s Nationwide Ladies’s Soccer League playoff hopes on a lifeline. 

Houston has not gained a regular-season match since a 2-0 residence win over the Orlando Pleasure on June 3, a winless streak of eight matches (0-3-5). Together with the Problem Cup, the Sprint are 1-5-5 over the previous 11 matches. 

Maybe most eye-catching concerning the Sprint’s poor 2023 season below Laity is the shortage of objectives — particularly given the attacking expertise on the group’s roster. Houston has managed to seek out the again of the online simply 12 instances in 18 common season matches (0.66 per match). That’s the worst goal-scoring report within the NWSL, and 7 objectives behind the subsequent most goal-shy group, the Kansas Metropolis Present. 

Laity inherited a group with newly revived ahead Ebony Salmon, who scored 9 objectives in 11 matches after signing with the Sprint halfway by way of the 2022 season for a club-record price. Though a ruptured Achilles meant Nichelle Prince wouldn’t be out there on the wing for the primary 9 months of the yr, Houston had lately uncovered Michelle Alozie to be a major contributor and an acceptable alternative.